It's too early to know how much the hackers may have stolen from unsuspecting members of the public who support Aid to the Church in Need, but the charity knows that the addresses of over 2,000 online donors have been accessed. The charity acted swiftly to shut down its website, warned benefactors and reported the breach of security to the police.

Neville Kyrke-Smith, National Director at Aid to the Church in Need UK, said:
"We are all in a state of shock. Apart from the obvious distress to benefactors, we're concerned that our charity identity has been stolen. However it's the beneficiaries, those who need the money the most, who will ultimately suffer. I urge all charities to regularly review their website security and make sure all software is up-to-date."

Andrew Hind, Chief Executive at the Commission, said:
"This charity already used a secure encrypted connection to transfer and store data and the organisation's website should have been safe. However it's a sad fact of modern times that charities, like businesses, have to make sure their websites are protected. All charities need to regularly review website security and make sure they stay ahead of the hackers and fraudsters."

Charities concerned about web security should view the online guidance found on the Department of Trade and Industry website.

Related links to this article:
Charity Commission [1]
Guidance about information security can be found on the Department for Trade and Industry's website at this link [2]

---

Book your seats at the e-Government National Conference 2005
You can now book seats online for the e-Government National Conference 2005 [3], which takes place on the afternoon of Wednesday January 25th at the Savoy in London. This short afternoon conference is an intense investigation of central and local government strategies for 2006-7, and features a free consultancy session from leading partners at KPMG.

The evening e-Government National Awards 2005 are now fully sold-out (apart from seats reserved for finalist SROs) and are a celebration of the best teams in UK e-Government – and the 95 finalists are detailed at this link [4].

The Awards are supported by the Cabinet Office e-Government Unit [5], the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister [6], the Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm) [7], and SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers) [8]. Platinum sponsor is KPMG [9], and also sponsoring are Jobsgopublic [10], Entrust [11], futurate.com [12], Guardian Recruitment Solutions [13], TES Jobs [14], and O2 [15].